Due to continuing technological innovations in computer processing and networking, and the development of higher density memory devices, the amount of electronic information being stored in electronic repositories is continuing to grow at exponential rates. Indeed, by way of example, there is a vast amount of electronic information which is stored in millions of publicly accessible electronic libraries and other data sources on the World Wide Web, for example.
Although such electronically accessible information provides a vast source of information from which desired knowledge can be extracted, it is important to implement methods that enable an individual to efficiently locate desired information and extract relevant knowledge of user interest. Conventional methods that use “keyword” searching can be inefficient and inaccurate for various reasons such as variation in terminology, etc. Moreover, it is important to effectively manage the knowledge acquired from such electronic information. For instance, as a user continues to build a local electronic library of electronic information acquired from the Web, for instance, it would be highly desirable to utilize a management system that could efficiently organize and classify information in the local electronic library to thereby facilitate identification and access of relevant information from the repository.